


Dollar For Your Thoughts

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 05:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17822483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Derek should have known there was something significant about Stiles' ... odd focus on those little crappy kids' Valentine cardsNow he was finding them in every corner of his life and seriously regretted not asking about them in more depth sooner





	Dollar For Your Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

> Some Sterek for Valentine's Day, a little late but eh <3

"I can't believe they already have Valentine's stuff out, it's not even freaking New Year's yet!"

Derek had to admit, he was surprised to hear Stiles sounding so negative, he had thought his boyfreind would _like_ Valentine's Day

Ofcourse he had no concrete reason to, Stiles just.... seemed like the _type_

"I thought you would like that, do you have something against Valentine's Day?" he asked absently, checking the grocery list and sighing in discontent

The store had rearranged again, finding his favorite brand of shampoo was always a pain but now it was going to be even more difficult, and there weren't many out there that didn't bother werewolf noses....

"No, I have something against everybody trying to rush holidays, I GUARANTEE you they'll have Easter stuff out before Valentine's Day even hits,"

"Probably,"

Now that Derek thought about it, he remembered how infuriated Stiles had gotten when they started putting up Christmas stuff in October, he had just assumed he was mad that Halloween was being pushed aside- considering Stiles loved Halloween and hadn't complained when he started finding Halloween stuff in July- but come to think of it he had been annoyed with New Year's stuff being put out before Christmas too....

"I mean, as if it doesn't already feel like time is moving too fast," the witch huffed sourly, nose wrinkling as he dropped a bottle of fingernail polish into the cart

"You're not wrong," Derek agreed, only half focused on his boyfreind's complaining and turning down the hair care aisle

"I don't even see the little papper cards yet, just chocolate and stuffed animals and stuff,"

"And that's an additional problem because....?"

Hm, they moved the men's shampoo to the other end of the aisle....

"Well it just seems like they'd want to put the one thing they have a run on out earliest, if they're going to do this crap they could atleast do a guy a favor,"

....

Ok, that was enough, Derek's concentration was broken

"Alright, you lost me," he concluded, setting the list down and turning his full attention to Stiles

"Dude, didn't you ever give out those little cartoon cards when you were in school? Remember? Everybody had them! Scooby Doo and Spiderman and princesses and stuff? You buy a box of 24 or whatever and you have to give one to _everybody_ even the kids you hate? Wich honestly really seems like it goes against the entire purpose of Valentin-"

"No, I don't understand why you care about them and what you mean by 'the one thing they have a run on',"

Stiles had actually looked concerned at the idea that Derek never exchanged kiddie Valentines, but now he just looked more confused than anything

"Oh, haven't you ever noticed that? No matter how early you try to buy 'em, the best ones are always gone, either they haven't put the really good stuff out yet or they're sold out,"

"... No I can't say I've ever had that experience, and again- why does it matter to you regardless?"

"Because I give them to my freinds every year...?"

... How is it that they're still having this conversation exactly?

"Ok, I'm going to try asking ONE last question- _why?_ "

"Tradition,"

Stiles had said it so simply, with so much seriousness, that he seemed utterly confused at why Derek was even asking

Derek gave up

 

~+~

 

Incidentally, Derek should have paid alot more attention to that little quirky conversation of their's back in Januarary

It probably would have provided alot more context for _this_ if he had

Stiles was downstairs making breakfast, the scent of waffles drifting pleasantly up through the floor and jarring Derek from his light but peacefull sleep

He knew Stiles was probably going to bring him breakfast in bed, so he slid out to go brush his teeth, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he stepped into the bathroom

At first he was just going through the motions, fill a cup of water, wet his toothbrush, grab the toothpaste-....

Well, that's where he more or less woke from his minor daze

The toothpaste had something attached to it, a little Spiderman card that said "You are the ULTIMATE Valentine!" on it was taped to the tube

Upon tugging it free, he turned it over and found "To: Derek From: Stiles" on the back

...

What...?

 

~+~

 

By the time Stiles had come back with breakfast, easily half an hour later, Derek had been so distracted by the big bag of Valentine gifts Stiles had brought up as well that he had completely forgotten to ask about the Spiderman card

The bag was full of little cheap, corny things

Socks with hearts on them, a teddy bear, a big heart-shaped box of chocolate, even a little headband with glittery heart "antennae" on it, among other things

Not to mention the freaking _sex dice_

It basically looked like he had just gone through the Valentine aisles at Walmart blindfolded and bought whatever accumulated to about $30

He had a feeling that this wasn't _really_ his Valentine celebration, Stiles liked corniness and he was apt to going a little overboard with the cheesy crap in the spirit of "celebration", but he was also incredibly romantic and had yet to let a holiday pass wherein he didn't sincerely blow Derek's mind in one way or another

Besides that, Derek had his own plans for the romantic day- a day long stay in the mountains at a nice cabin, having dinner in a nearby but quite romantic restaurant

That was when he was planning to give Stiles his own gift, over dinner

So once breakfast was over he slid out of bed again, opening the closet to grab some clothes- .... and finding another papper valentine in the closet, this one hanging right in front of the clothes, taped to an empty hanger

It was Avengers themed, simply with "Valentine, you're a superhero!" printed on it, and ofcourse the obligatory to-and-from on the back

"Alright, I've found two of these now, what gives?" he asked in confusion, turning to Stiles with raised brows and an otherwise pinched expression

"I told you Derek, it's tradition,"

And just like that, Stiles snapped his fingers and the hanger vanished, allowing the Valentine to free-fall until Derek reached out to catch it

"Am I getting any more information than that?" he asked with a pout

"Nope~"

Ofcourse not

 

~+~

 

Derek found the third Valentine taped to the steering weel of the Camaro

It was Frozen themed, with Elsa on it, and reading "Valentine, you are one of a kind!" on it

Stiles was highly amused when his boyfreind found it

 

~+~

 

The thing about Stiles being a witch is that he's capable of, occasionally, putting things in places without having to be there

A fine example?

Spreading out Valentines all over the freaking cabin, apparently

As soon as they got to the cabin and Derek approached the door, he found another card, this one Moana themed and reading a simple "Happy Valentine's Day!"

He glanced over his shoulder at Stiles, who looked as though he couldn't be prouder of himself

And it was like that all day

He opened up his duffle bag and found a Wonder Woman valentine

There was a Monster High one stuck in the bathroom door

One from Ever After High on the bed

The TV had a Scooby Doo one on it and there was one from Harry Potter on the kitchen counter

He found a Star Wars valentine pinned to his dress shirt and a Disney Princess valentine in his pocket, that one reading "I love flowers"and nothing else

....

"They were really starting to run low on ideas here, weren't they?"

Stiles merely shrugged, a smirk on his face as he pulled on his own jacket

But they didn't end there

Because if Derek had been foolish enough to believe that they could just go to dinner without having to worry about these Valentines following him, he would have been wrong

Surely enough, there was a Superman Valentine under his bread plate, and when he grabbed his wallet at the end of the night, he found a Yugioh valentine sitting nestled between his cash

...

"How the hell long have you been planning this?"

That Yugioh Valentine was ATLEAST twelve years ago

"Like I said, it-"

"Yeah, tradition, you keep saying that but it doesn't actually answer anything,"

For a long moment, Stiles was quiet, before ultimately shrugging and turning to pick at his dessert

"Like I said, when I was a kid I used to buy these cheap valentines every year and give them out to my classmates, I just ... never really stopped, ofcourse, as I got older I stopped giving them out to random idiots in class and just restricted them to people I ACTUALLY liked, like Scott and my dad and Lydia, I've never seen a reason to give up the habbit, and in fact, I joined this ... penpal book club thing last year and we mail holiday cards- including these- back and forth, but ... ever since I stopped doing the 'give one to every kid in your class' thing, I've always had alot of these left over, even at the peak of my freindship basis I've never really had THAT many people to give them to, so I've just kept the left-overs, ya' know, as collectors' peices? They're surprisingly valuable these days, some of them atleast, but anyway, so I decided that since this is the first year I'd be giving you Valentines, I should do more than just give you an envelope full of them,"

"Right, because that would be too simple," Derek said with a small smirk

"Hey, tease all you want, it's better to be too extravagant than it is to be so simple,"

"I wasn't teasing, keep talking," the werewolf insisted

He was legitimately curious about this, even if his tone was bordering on sarcastic

"... Right, anyway, so I was spreading out the left-overs from this year but decided it looked a little bare bones, so I put all of my extras into this event too, now I'm just down to the set of each that I'm not using, to keep them as a collector's thing, but all of the spares are for you, because I love you THAT much,"

"I'm honored," Derek snorted, eyes rolling playfully as he finished his dessert

"How many more of these fun little surprises can I expect to find?"

"You know, in all seriousness, I never counted,"

.....

That couldn't _possibly_ be good

 

~+~

 

Well, Derek was right

He kept finding Valentines all night

Hell he kept finding Valentines even after they went home the following day, the house was still crawling with them, and it took him several days after to actually uncover all of them

But after he did, once he had finally stopped finding the pesky little cards that seemed to find a home in the absolute STRANGEST places, Derek found himself.... missing it

He hadn't noticed at the time but there had been something strangely.... comforting... about opening a cabinet or lifting up a box and finding a little card with a corny saying on it and, much more importantly, Stiles' writing on the back

He hadn't noticed when he was flooded with them just how nice it had been, just how much it had felt like someone really cared, even in such a tiny way...

The great thing about their relationship, however, was that even when one of them was unaware of something.... the other often was

Derek may not have noticed how he felt about those cards, but Stiles had

He had picked up on all of the little nuances, the slight curves in Derek's smiles, the fondness when he rolled his eyes, the way he often lingered on the cards, and ofcourse most importantly, that despite his little comments and unimpressed expressions, he kept every single card

He took good care of them, even put them in an album....

Obviously he cared for them

That was why, as soon as they were back from their trip, Stiles had rushed to the nearest Walmart, the nearest Target, Big Lots, Walgreens, and every other place he could think of that sold the cards and bought up several boxes on clearance for as little as a dollar each, and set to work

And a couple of days later, after Derek had found all of the original valentines, he woke up, headed into the bathroom, reached for the toothpaste.....

And found a Captain America card on it that said "Choose a side Valentine!" on the front, and had a little "magic trick" on the back, scratching away at a sticker to reveal Stiles' signature

He rolled his eyes.....

But he also smiled, and thus, a new tradition was born


End file.
